JERUSALEM, Aug 1 (Hina) - Croatia is interested in cooperation with the Israeli military industry but whether and which contracts the two countries will sign will not be known before the end of this year, Croatian Defence Minister
Jozo Rados said in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Rados, who is a member of a Croatian state delegation on a four-day official visit to Israel, today held talks with Israel's Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh on cooperation between the two countries' military industries. Rados told reporters after the meeting the two sides agreed for a joint commission of the two defence ministries to meet in Zagreb in November and try to achieve some concrete results after two-year-long negotiations on cooperation. Final conclusions on cooperation have not been reached at today's talks, which is in line with our expectations, Rados said. We are in the middle of talks and have not completed them
JERUSALEM, Aug 1 (Hina) - Croatia is interested in cooperation with
the Israeli military industry but whether and which contracts the
two countries will sign will not be known before the end of this
year, Croatian Defence Minister Jozo Rados said in Jerusalem on
Tuesday.
Rados, who is a member of a Croatian state delegation on a four-day
official visit to Israel, today held talks with Israel's Deputy
Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh on cooperation between the two
countries' military industries.
Rados told reporters after the meeting the two sides agreed for a
joint commission of the two defence ministries to meet in Zagreb in
November and try to achieve some concrete results after two-year-
long negotiations on cooperation. Final conclusions on cooperation
have not been reached at today's talks, which is in line with our
expectations, Rados said.
We are in the middle of talks and have not completed them yet, Sneh
said.
"It was negotiated for too long without concrete progress," Rados
said commenting on talks on military cooperation between Israel and
Croatia's former government.
The former authorities had started talks on cooperation between the
two military industries with Israel and some negotiations had been
brought close to the signing of agreements.
The Israeli company 'Elbit' was to carry out the modernisation of
Croatian combat planes MIG-21 and the contract was estimated at 110
million dollars. Also announced was the joint production of Tabor
automatic weapons, intended for export to other countries
(estimated at US$30-40 million) and the modernisation of Croatian
tanks of Russian origin T-55 (a project worth US$50 million).
The new Croatian authorities have decided to take six months to
consider what has been done by the former authorities regarding
cooperation with the Israeli military industry and see which
projects they want to complete and which they do not want to engage
in, considering Croatia's limited funds and austerity programme.
Rados said on Sunday Croatia would decide by the end of this year
whether it wanted Israel to modernise its MIG-21 fleet or would
purchase some other combat planes.
The Croatian defence minister visited the weapons factories Soltam
and Elbit in Haifa, Israel's plane industry near Tel Aviv and
military production facilities in Ramat Hasharon and Tadiran in
Holon.
Croatia wants to achieve two goals in its military production,
Rados told reporters.
"We want to modernise the Croatian army but also strengthen the
Croatian military industry," he said.
Croatia will try to include Israel in the development of its
military industry because Israel's industry has both components.
He described Croatia's military industry as 'relatively poor',
adding it would not be easy to build and make it self-sustainable.
Nevertheless, he hoped cooperation with Israel would help Croatia
achieve its goals.
(hina) rml